Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Most of my weekends this summer have been spent trying to get a handle on my much overgrown yard. Saturdays and a good part of Sundays have found me in a never ending battle of man -vs- nature.

I tell you, it's not easy juggling work and hobbies and life in general, but I managed to get a few things accomplished. We (my lovely wife, Dellis and I) managed to trim and shape up what had gotten a bit out of hand.

I've also added to the infrastructure with a nifty drip irrigation system and extensions to the bridge that extend to the back door.

We might also get the pond's eco-system balanced out to the point where we're not condemning goldfish to a murky death.

Sure, the smart money is always on nature (I need to sleep sometimes) but I think I've made a pretty good showing the last couple of months.

I also believe that the seasons are on my side. Things grow slower in the winter.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

It's kind of funny, but I though the "Carmageddon" post was the oldest story. I didn't blog about in the last few months.

I've been using an iOS app called Blogsy to post to my much loved, but often neglected blog (Flock, RIP).

My workflow in news is shoot it, cut it, put it on TV. Like this story on the Hermosa Beach battle. . .okay, tiff, between a local activist and the nightclubs that populate the shoreline area of this sometimes hard partying beach community.

Reporter Rita Garcia and I were on this story that included a stop at the Hermosa City Council meeting (snore) and then multiple stops at bars and restaurants near the beach (yay).

The problem seemed to be that some locals were feeling that the dancing and the late hours of the partying population of the area was making it difficult for those that would prefer to not tie up city services cleaning up the assorted messes left behind.

That's why the council was hearing comments on proposed changes to the ordinances that regulated, well, fun.

Okay, not to be biased, but I bet you can guess which side of things this gentleman was on.

It got a little cold for those of us not wearing pants that night (i'm talking about the reporter in the skirt, not me) but it was an interesting place for a live shot.

Also, i should mention that some young twenty something decided it would be fun to goose the camera man. I almost made a fuss about it, but then the next thing you know, I'd be hanging out at council meetings and maybe chasing kids and dogs off my lawn.

My summer kind of kicked into high gear back around the weekend of the inappropriately nicknamed "Carmageddon".

The name was cute. The mobilization of resources in order to cover this event was pretty freaking serious.

Looking back at it, there are far more serious stories that have popped up over this summer (I am really NOT talking about the Kardashian/Humphries wedding).

Still, as we were barreling towards that weekend, with all the hype, you really didn't know which direction everything was going to go.

That Thursday before, I was helping to cable our trucks into position. Friends from other stations were knocking out liveshots from our temporary media center overlooking the 405 Freeway.

It was a long day, but we were cabled in and geared up two days before the freeway was even closed.

Somehow one of my parts in the whole operation was to navigate the bureaucracy that pops up when private contractors (and their security guards) aren't on the same page as the city and the media outlets that have worked together to try and make a logistically difficult situation run at least a tiny bit less stressful.

Plus, it's nice to get your hands dirty every now and again in the coverage of the news.

I played "thread the needle" in parking the big sat truck. We rolled out power and video cables to the temporary camera platform, taped it all down and secured everything that needed to be in position through the weekend.

It was either going to be a significant event that caused a lot of inconvenience for Los Angeles drivers or it was going to be kind of a bust.

Crap! It's been a couple of weeks without a decent posting to the blog. Don't worry, I'm still here. Been busy, mostly just trying to keep a grip on my sanity.

Not an easy thing in my world.

I have pictures from over fifteen posts from the last few weeks lined up and all I need to do is set aside some time to write the captions and text that usually go along with my photos. I'll work on it, but for the time being, can we just pretend that I haven't missed a day at all? Okay?

Rita Garcia and I were trying to catch up with the family of an Arco station attendant who tried to stop a guy from stealing.

Our first stop was to his neighborhood. We'd gotten his address from a friend of his and went knocking in his door.

No answer.

We did run into several of his neighbors, one of whom asked Rita for an autograph.

We did eventually manage to catch up with the family. They were holding up well, but it was a difficult interview for them (and me).

For his trouble, our loyal Arco employee was nearly run down and hung from the hood of the car as it sped away. He wound up in the hospital and was in critical condition the night we did the story.

I'm all for employee loyalty, but I'm pretty sure this story illustrates going far beyond what's expected by a company.

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Out in the Ventura County Bureau for the last couple of days instead of my regular metro L.A. beat. Our story today was a preview of the Ventura County Fair which opens on Wednesday at 11:00am.

It was fun to see the rides and what nots being set up. It's the kind of thing I wish I had a still camera to capture (along with the free time to make it happen). In fact, I almost feel like making the trek and taking some pictures.